Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Venice- City of Love

There I was sitting in the Euro Star going to my next destination 2 and 1/2 hours away from Florence - Venice. Was traveling with mixed feelings - Excited since it is supposed to be a very romantic city and sad that this was our last destination for this splendid 9 days vacation.

So we finally checked into our hotel and the room had amazing decor; the best I have stayed in till date... every fixture had beautiful carvings and the whole room's colour combination was rustic red... After settling in we decided to venture out... Went to Piazza La Roma (the port) by bus and then took the water bus. It's amazing to see how they live their entire life in water. Travelling in water buses or water taxis, their mails and couriers coming in water boats. It's really splendid...

Some people say Venice has become very dirty and the water stinks... I never found anything like that even though I was there in their peak season, when supposedly it should be more dirty..
The place is beautiful... we saw the beautiful architecture of the place and shopped a little......ate a little.....

When the time was around sunset, we decided to take the gondola.. Now picture this....

We are going in the gondola... beautiful weather.. sun is about to set.. the guy rowing the boat is singing a lovely, probably a romantic Italian love song and....
Aananya decides to do potty :)
Since it was an hour's ride we seeked permission from the gondola guy to clean her in the gondola while he sang...
So here we were in the most romantic place, in the most romantic gondola... cleaning potty... :) Well that's life with kids ;) But no regrets whatsoever..
How many people can claim that they have cleaned their baby in a gondola in Venice?? And how many babies can claim that either???? :)

The next day we headed to all the small Islands near by, saw the glass factory at Murano and the exhibition... Liked a glass set.. cost of "each" glass was 28,000rs. put it right back from where I picked it, admired it and moved on ;)

I am so glad that I made the decision to go to Italy and have come back with beautiful memories that will stay on with me forever......

While on our flight back.. watched movies with a vengeance.. Saw Hanna Montana, Hangover and Luck by chance (back to back)... and then was home again...
However the next day was online again, busy preparing for my next holiday ;) We will just have to wait and see how that turns out ;)

Monday, October 5, 2009

Florence

Alright.. So we took this beautiful train journey to Florence passing through picturesque view of the country side of Italy.. We were in Florence within 1 and 1/2 hour of leaving Rome. Although I never felt like leaving Rome in the first place and wanted to stay there a little longer, I was equally anxious to see how our entire trip would turn out..

Usually Aakaash is the one who always selects hotels for us and his choice is 99.9% good, however this is for the 1st time we both were very apprehensive about our choice of accommodation since it was going to be our 1st experience staying in a hostel accommodation. These accommodations are usually taken by backpackers and is highly popular amongst youths... It is actually a hostel like set up with dorm, shared rooms, private rooms with shared or private baths etc for travelers... I thought it would be a crammed room with old or dirty walls and not a very clean bathroom..

To our utmost surprise the whole experience was new and wonderfully pleasant. First of all we were greeted at the reception by a very friendly staff. We had booked a private room with 3 beds and a private bath for us, so at the reception we were handed sheets and pillow covers for our room.. Holding the sheets felt odd and I was also dreading to go to the 3rd floor to find out what was waiting there for me.

As the lift opened to the 3rd floor, I was surprised to see beautiful red walls with complementing wall paintings and beautifully done up doors. There was a little relief for me but I was anxious to see what was behind the door... when I opened the door.....
Nothing could stop my beaming smile, for in-front of me was a small dresser with 3 cupboards, a very clean bathroom ( I choose my rooms based on clean bathrooms ;) ) and .........
a single bed, a double bed and on top of the double bed was a bunker bed and it wasn't one of those conjusted bunker beds where you pity the person who is below since there was enough space that Aan could easily stand without his head hitting the base of the bunker bed...

So very quickly I spread the sheets while giggling since it was kinda reminding me of my hostel days and the bunker bed was giving a feeling like we were traveling in a train... remember the way you have to stand and spread the sheets on the top berth of a train"). Aan was extremely thrilled that he staked claim to the top bed all to himself. However when the excitement of running up and down the bed was over, we decided it was time to leave the hotel, oops hostel, and head for some interesting site seeing...

We took the hop on hop off bus for the day and this bus had 2 routes.. So we quickly finished one tour and waited for the other and to our surprise this bus took us to another city called Fiesole. The scenery and location was so beautiful, it was a small hill station with tall bell and clock towers with fine architecture and nippy weather :)

After site seeing we reached our hotel at night and realized we were just too tired to go out for dinner and decided to have dinner in the hostel's cafeteria where we ordered Italiano and it was delicious.. while waiting for dinner, we played a few shots of pool and that made us remember our dating days and my college days...

Next day we went to Piza city which was an hours journey by train to see the Leaning Tower of Piza and then came back to Florence. From Piza City I wanted to go to Volterra ( where I believe New Moon ( movie) has been shot ). Purpose of visit to Volterra - Twilight Saga fan.. Anyway, due to the time crunch couldn't fulfill that wish.... although surprisingly Aakaash was ready to chase my madness along with the kids but it was cutting too fine and probability of getting stuck in know where was higher.. If I get a chance again I would probably do it sometime in the future..
As I said Italy is a place where you can go again and again.. It has so much to offer and so much of history and beauty that you are bound to go back ..

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Rome - spectacular view

OK! So I am a person who starts packing "minimum" 3 days in advance before any trip and here I am on the last day trying to stuff bare minimum things inside the suitcase due to the strict instructions that I should not expect my husband to carry so much of luggage on the small lanes and bridges of Venice. However, I did manage to accomplish what he had asked and we just had 1 big suitcase, a trolley bag with one huge rucksack and of course not to forget the diaper bag which I have become used to for the last 3 and 1/2 years of my life... { BTW another colleague of his ( family of 4 ) were traveling with 6 bags in all... hmmphh }

Anyway.. so we are all set to go.. reached his office from where we boarded the office bus with police escort.. ( we get that for security purpose ) Nigeria is known not be a very safe place...

Reached airport on time, boarded the flight on time.. Although had to wait at the check in counter for more than an hour since there seemed to be some problem with my ticket (again) for which we were compensated with free access to the lounge... ;)

Boarded the flight.. kids were sweet enough to sleep through most of the flight.. Was tempted to watch a movie but thought of Rome and decided against it.. Changed the flight at Frankfurt, boarded again.. slept again as much as Aananya allowed... and....

Finally the plane landed in Rome.... hotel was nice too.. only problem - had to pull the luggage to the room which was on the 2nd floor.. well not much of a problem for me as I had Aananya in my arms.. problem part was for Aakaash..
1 double bed and a single bed ... joined all the beds together.. had a comfortable stay..
The location was excellent. close to the Termini station, bus stop, church.. all in all I can say "indeed a prime location"...

First day:-
By the time we came out of the room, we decided just to do a lil shopping/ window shopping.. look around... just enjoy the weather...
Had Italian food out in the open right next to the Church with the church bells ringing from time to time with a spectacular weather and view.. It was like we were in a different time..
Came back to the hotel, tried to rest as much as possible to be charged up for the next day..


Second Day:-
Took the hop on hop off bus, saw the Colosseum, booked a tour... got to know about it's history and they took us to the forum and Palatine hill ruins. A tour guide is a must else the place would hold no meaning at all... and you would find it a waste of time.. The view from the top was so beautiful, you could see the entire Rome... It's very hard to describe in words the beauty that Rome holds...
This place took up so much time of ours that we decided to sit tight on the hop on and hop off bus and got down only near the trevi fountain which is just so spectacular unlike anything I have ever seen... Of course didn't forget to make a wish and threw in a coin, wonder what Aakaash wished for??? hmmm...
So Aan wanted to make 2 wishes and threw 2 coins, 1st wish - a burger and 2nd wish - water!! However his 2nd wish was granted immediately and for the 1st wish he just had to wait for a day!

Third day:-
I was very excited since today was the day I was visiting Vatican City, the smallest country in the world.. well I didn;t know that either.. Just as you enter the Vatican City, it looks like you have entered a different world all together.. The workmanship is so fine that makes you wonder how artistic and meticulous those people would have been.. You have to be there to feel the power that they would have felt...

Fourth day:-
We went and saw Spanish Steps, Pantheon and all the other tourist spots we could cover. In between a lil bit of shopping and got caught in the rain so decided to halt and eat at one of the cafes, hogging on Italian food, sitting outside under a small umbrella where we could hear the pitter patter of the rain.. This was the perfect way to end the beautiful trip to Rome but I was looking forward to my train journey to Florence...
Italy is a place that makes you feel things you haven't felt before.. I suggest it is a must to go there and it should be put on everyone's wish list...

Monday, September 28, 2009

preparation for the journey

This is for the 1st time that I really felt like writing something.. Although I am not very good with words but I am writing this blog for my sis and my family... I wanted to share the experience that I had with them..

Somehow I wanted to write this blog from Italy itself but due to the hectic and tiring schedule never had the courage to stay up late and do so.. Anyway its never too late till the time you do so.. right!!!

Anyway.. So it starts from ...
ohh by the way any time you feel bored.. you can leave.. no compulsions ;) to read further ahead....;)

ok.. So finally it starts from have 2 holidays together after sunday which is a rare phenomenon in Lagos.. So almost all families were trying to capitalise on this and so was I.. Since I am the one who decides on destination.. ( per sey my fav destinations or wish list destinations as I call )... My sweet hubby simply agrees and abides by my decision since he knows my choice has to be the best.. Do you think he has a choice where he can really dispute that???? He too is my choice isn't it?

Anyway, so initially we or I had decided on Egypt... The factors :- Only 4 days to cover the entire place.. and 4 days was enough to bare the brunt of the heat of Egypt... So suddenly my dear husband whose practically 2nd wife is his work came up with the idea of taking 3 more days leave and seeing some other place like .... like.... ITALY...

So I grabbed on the opportunity and started my research work.. which almost ate my entire week including the weekends but at the end it was worth it..

Ya so to go on with my story..
So finally we decided to go to Italy and gave the visa application for Sweden because we could get visa faster since as you know Aakaash works for Ericsson which is a Swedish company and probably might retire from this company one day ( a joke cracked by my friends often) !!! He has been working here for 10 years now.. However the visa needs to be sent to Abuja which is another place ( 1hour flight from Lagos). The visa could be sent only on tue due to the policies etc and could come back on thur which was cutting it too fine since we wanted to fly on Friday night.. However we were sweating on Thursday and weren't able to book our flights or hotels due to the visa prob... Mind you this is suppose to be the "peakest" season according to Italian.. as published on their websites..

We were practically running against and out of time.. On Thursday morning we got a green light and started the 2nd round of work.. - book flight tickets.. well that is another story too...

So we asked for 4 tickets to be blocked on Monday and went ahead with our hotel bookings.. wait a minute I never said that the flight story was over.. So on thursday when we asked to confirm our tickets the travel agents tells us there are no tickets available for Friday.. Now remember we have already finished booking our hotels... Finally the travel agent does manage to get tickets from another airlines and that's when we realise that Aananya's age has been made 2 instead of 1, an error on my husband's part.. Finally when that is corrected.. we realise that the return ticket has been booked from Vienna instead of Venice. Last but not the least when that error is corrected, the tickets that are handed to us are 3 instead of 4... So this was the story of how the tickets were finally confirmed for 4.

Now that we have 4 tickets in hand.. there comes the part of hotel bookings which I was exhausted mentally and physically looking for by now... I just booked for Rome and left Florence and Venice for aakaash to complete. However we got good deals in the end but to find a hotel in center of Venice where I eventually wanted to stay was costing for around 50000rs per night.. So we settled for less and I dropped the idea of watching the canal and gondolas floating right below from my room.. About my journey to Italy would be in the next blog that I write..... since being a mom doesn't give the liberty to stay online for such long hours..;) Ciao... as the Italian say!!!!